Real-life Crime Movie Creates a Buzz

A detective movie called “Children” is grabbing attention in South Korea ahead of its domestic release on Feb. 10. It deals with the “frog boys” case, one of the biggest unsolved crimes in the country.

In the 1991 incident, five boys disappeared during a trip to catch frogs at a mountain near their home. Their bodies were found halfway up the mountain in 2002, but no one was ever charged with a crime in connection with their deaths. The case was closed in March 2006 due to the statute of limitations.

At a press presentation last week, film director Lee Gyu-man said, “[Investigating the case deeply], I got to believe they were murdered, and some matters were not fully revealed due to various factors at that time of the investigation.”

When they disappeared, authorities launched a nationwide search to find the boys and about 300,000 police and military staff were engaged in the efforts.

Now, movie fans want to know what, if any, answers the director has regarding the unsolved case. Questions linger about how such a large number of searchers could not find the boys and why an investigation team failed to identify murder weapons despite evidence of scars on the bodies.